Should residents be able to 'police' sections of their street?

[StreetStrife]

After just being shouted at by an incredibly rude and aggressive woman who barged out of her house to have a go at me for letting my dog wee on a patch of council owned grass at the end of her close I thought I would ask wise Mumsnetters their thoughts.

The woman who took it upon herself to police her street, and also, apparently, takes it upon herself to 'look after' this small patch of grass by planting a few geraniums in the middle, claims that because she looks after it and children play there sometimes I should not let my dog on it. Apparently my husband has "already been told not to use it" by her, so how dare I.

My thoughts are that children play in gardens and parks where dogs go all the time, that this is not her land, and that this is a convenient place for my dog to wee while we temporarily have no garden access due to building work. It is the closest bit of public grass we have, and I am currently injured and can't walk too far (although this is not a visible injury). My dog is prone to UTIs and likes to wee on grass rather than pavement, and often refuses to go if there is no grass. The next nearest patch of grass is an extra five minutes away.

This has reminded me of many incidents I've been involved in or heard of over the years, often to do with parking spaces on public highways but outside someone's house.

Should residents be able to 'police' the use of the streets directly in front of or around their home? I think no, so AIBU? If you are one of the people that think I am unreasonable I'd love to hear why, and if you do this on your street do people abide by your demands?

Legally she can't tell you whether you can or cannot use the grass for your dog. However I can sort of understand her viewpoint. She's trying to keep the bit of grass looking nice and dog urine can cause grass to go brown.

You seem to have a perfect storm of issues - your mobility problem, no garden access temporarily, your dog's UTI - that all mean you NEED to use this bit of grass. Maybe for the short period of disruption either your DH walks the dog to the further bit of grass or, if you have a car, drive a few minutes to the nearest park to let your dog do its business.

If you're taking your dog to this one specific piece of grass to use it as a toilet every time it needs to do... Yeah I can see her point of view actually it's a bit odd

YABU. Take your dog elsewhere. The council doesn't provide pissing greens for dogs. How rude.

Yes. Exactly this.

I think you need to ask yourself why you need to win this petty fight.

The woman's tried to make something a bit nicer, you want her to accept your dog's right to pee on it.

Whilst the law is on your side, I think you're the nightmare neighbour here.

A) a bit of dog pee on the grass is not going to destroy it

B) from the op: "I am currently injured and can't walk too far (although this is not a visible injury). My dog is prone to UTIs and likes to wee on grass rather than pavement, and often refuses to go if there is no grass. The next nearest patch of grass is an extra five minutes away." So I'm presuming that's why the dog can't just pee on another verge.

Why don't people take pride in the neighbourhood anymore? The woman has planted on the grass and is trying to enhance the area. So fed up of dogs pissing everywhere.

No not at all

you can’t just plant something on pubic space and then get rights to dictate usage

if you feel the desire to “brighten up the neighbourhood” then great but don’t expect teenage grunts not to pull flowers up, they do, r t be able to tell other users of the space what to do

and OP said she was aggressive, if she was all for the community perhaps a “ how about dogs pee here and kids play here”

but that’s not what has happened here, this is “look £3 of planted flowers this bit’s mine now”

calmly tell her it’s a public space, for all of us

I think this is the gist of it. She is 'that' neighbour.

I can't believe the aggression in some of the posts. Well, I can, it's Mumsnet. "Everything that's wrong with this world", "Entitled. Lazy". Some people are bizarre.

There won't be a 'stink of piss' from dogs weeing on grass in an open space.

I'm in my 60s and I don't remember a time when anyone I knew taught their dogs to wee in the gutter. I also don't remember that ever being discussed at dog training classes.

I think your neighbour is probably being daft, OP. Unless your dog actually weed on the geraniums, or unless there are dozens and dozens of dogs weeing there every day, it doesn't strike me as being at all unreasonable to let your dog wee there.

I'm guessing that the addition of some dog wee to the combined urine of spiders, beetles, squirrels, foxes, birds etc, etc is not doing the neighbourhood kids any harm.

It does. Turns it brown.

No one thinks the pee will destroy the grass

But teenagers haven't ripped them up, the op and her husband are taking their dog out of their home to that specific patch of land to piss all over it.

Why plant flowers where dogs pee?

Dogs have to go somewhere! She’s cray cray.

Why do you want to pick this fight?

It comes across that you're 'that neighbour'.

Why must your dog wee on a small patch of grass that someone is maintaining and where children play? Just take you dog anywhere else for a piss. There's no shortage of crappy verges about, pick a different one.
If your dog usually wees in the garden is it now weeing on this verge multiple times a day? In which case it will kill the grass...

“look £3 of planted flowers this bit’s mine now”

Lolol, that sounds like the exact grumpy neighbour equivalent of a dog weeing on a piece of land to claim it as their territory

Dog pee does stink, especially if many dogs use the same spot and it hasn’t rained.

We have dogs, but I’m always astounded by fellow dog walkers who let their dogs wet on other peoples property, walls, bins and cars, it’s disgraceful, and attracts other dogs.

It's never turned my grass brown, so maybe we'll just need to agree we've had different experiences of dog wee on grass!

Haven been ripped up yet? And they might not

but you can’t plant a what couple of cheap plug in plants and claim ownership

how likely is it the OP is the only dog walker who’s dog pees there?

dog piss sinks into the soil

It's not about winning in any way. I was trying to understand the mindset. It's so petty and illogical, and really quite ridiculous to treat people how she spoke to me. I haven't decided whether I'll be going back to the patch of grass with my dog yet. But based on the extreme level of the Mumsnet responses it's obviously highly emotive issue.

And as an aside, I just spoke with my husband. No one has ever spoken to him about this. So she lied to me about that. What the point of that was I don't know.

So what's the problem then?

She isn't sat out there with a deckchair claiming the as hers, is she? Clearly the local kids have been enjoying playing there without any fuss. She's just asking you not to ruin it.